A New Life
by Merlin Missy
Summary: Snippets of life.  PostStarcrossed, includes spoilers from the JLU preview.


A New Life  
a Justice League story  
byMerlin Missy  
Copyright 2004  
PG

Note to all: these are relatively unrelated story  
snippets. Post-Starcrossed, contains spoilers for that  
and the JLU preview shown at the end of the Cartoon  
Network broadcast. Characters? Situations? Yeah.  
Not mine. DC / Warner's. Trust me.

Note to self: when you have writer's block on the long  
story you're doing, write something else.

* * *

Dead. He was dead. Burned to a crisp during re-entry,  
annihilated upon impact. Dead. Dead. Dead and gone.  
Deceased. This is an ex-Bat.

Except for the part where he wasn't.

Bruce ... breathed. The air was cool in the Manor this  
morning, and silent. In a few hours the sounds of  
construction would echo through the halls as his home  
was repaired, but for the moment even Alfred was  
asleep, and Tim was in San Francisco this week, and the  
house was still and he could breathe.

His lungs should have been scorched by superheated air  
in the Watchtower; apparently he'd designed the  
atmospheric system well enough to compensate even for  
the horrifying conditions it underwent as the station  
died. He had come through with no worse than the  
effects of a bad sunburn, pain that was already fading  
with the help of Alfred's private burn cream.

Bruce was mostly fine now, would be completely fine in  
time. Only he was dead now.

When he'd shut the airlock, sending J'onn and Flash to  
safety in the escape pod, he'd known what he was doing.  
One part suicide, one part heroic sacrifice, he'd done  
what he could to complete his job: protect his city,  
his world, however he could. If this time that meant  
not coming back, well, that was the same risk he ran  
every night.

On the way down, he'd kept his mind focused. Guide the  
Watchtower, keep it on course, reach the target. He  
had no room for distractions, no time to consider Dick  
as he'd first seen the boy filled with a familiar  
strength and pain, to hope Alfred would be the one to  
tell Jim and Barbara, to speculate on the good man Tim  
was destined to grow to be, to feel the lingering  
tingle on his lips from what could have been a  
beginning.

No time.

And then the heat had surrounded him, filled him,  
choked him, and he'd wished them all long happy lives,  
and he'd died.

He _should_ have died.

But Clark, stupid Clark who never saw what was in front  
of him, stuck-up Clark who knew very well he was the  
strongest, crazy Clark who refused to believe dead was  
dead, Clark had come for him, had saved him like a  
kitten from a tree, or like Lois when she'd once again  
gone a little too far in pursuit of the truth. Clark  
had snatched him away from his death, had given him  
time again.

_Bastard._

There was more affection in the thought than anger.  
How could he be angry? Even if Clark had completely  
abandoned his mission to come gallivanting to the  
rescue, how could Bruce dare resent him? After all,  
Clark had only acted the way he always did.

Clark loved him.

Not, his mind was quick to provide, in the way the  
trashier tabloids suggested. According to some of  
those publications, the League would barely have time  
to sleep with all the activities they were supposedly  
engaging in with one another. Bruce would have been  
much more worried about those insinuations had he not  
spent over a decade running around at night wearing  
tights, usually in the company of similarly-clad young  
men. One had to be supremely confident in one's own  
sexuality to do so. He was. As for Clark, given his  
upbringing, he'd probably never even considered the  
matter, and if asked, he'd chuckle his patented Boy  
Scout of the Universe chuckle, and fly off to save some  
nuns or something.

No, Clark loved him because that's who Clark was, even  
when he was trying to be someone else, something else.  
He opened his heart, he let people inside. He'd taken  
J'onn home for Christmas because J'onn had nowhere else  
to be. He saved the world in big and small ways every  
day because he loved the Earth and her people. And  
that's why he took Hawkgirl's betrayal so personally,  
because Clark could never understand why someone he  
loved would hurt him.

Bruce expected people to hurt him, to hurt each other,  
to lie, to cheat, to steal. Clark expected the best  
from everyone, but Bruce anticipated the worst, and was  
not often disappointed. And the thing was, the amazing  
thing that drive Bruce crazy, was that Clark was not  
often disappointed, either. He felt that people, deep  
down, were good people, and it seemed that people who  
had encountered him became better human beings; he gave  
people an opportunity to be better, and they didn't  
want to disappoint him.

Clark hadn't given up on Luthor; even now, after  
everything, Clark still tried to reach him, to save him  
from himself. Bruce just wanted to make sure Luthor  
couldn't hurt anyone else. Here in the morning, the  
first morning of his new life, Bruce wasn't sure which  
of them was right.

It was possible Clark was going to end up turning Bruce  
into a better person against his wishes, pull him out  
of the shadows he knew too well. The thought chilled  
him. He had seen a world Clark had recreated in his  
own image, and over drinks not long ago, Lois had told  
him about another such world she'd seen. There was too  
much of the straight and narrow, sometimes. And the  
only place where the sun shone every day was the  
desert.

So maybe Bruce needed to stay who he was, what he was,  
just to make sure they both stayed sane.

The sun rose.

He'd seen sunrises from rooftops, from orbit, from his  
bed with a woman in his arms. Every time, it had meant  
a new day in the battle, a new morning to end a night  
spent fighting. Now he didn't know what it meant.  
Maybe it could mean whatever he wanted. Maybe after  
you were dead, you got to decide who you were next time  
around.

It was morning, and people were making toast and coffee  
and were getting ready for their jobs. He never could  
truly leave his own job, he knew that, but if there was  
room to breathe here in the dawn light, maybe there was  
room for living, too. Maybe there was time.

He dialed the number, let it ring. He expected a  
machine, wondered if he could make himself leave a  
message.

"Hello?" He heard the groggy inflections of someone  
who'd gotten to bed less than an hour before. Bruce  
almost hung up.

"It's me," he said, in the voice he used when it really  
was him. "Sorry to wake you."

"It's okay," said Dick. "What's up?"

* * *

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Why we're here."

"We're replacements."

"Sixty people, for one opening?"

"You've seen the job market lately?"

"Funny."

Kara wandered quietly through the crowd, picking up  
snatches of conversation. The League, well most of it,  
was still behind closed doors. The rest of them,  
hopefuls all, mulled around inside the Tower but  
outside the room.

"You know what I heard?"

"I heard they sent her packing."

"I thought they said she's taking a leave of absence."

"You don't take a leave of absence from being a  
superhero."

"I heard she went back to Thanagar."

"Uh uh. She was spotted in Midway City just last  
week."

"Sure it was her?"

"Lot of girls with wings in your city?"

"I saw one in Dakota, once."

She knew some of the faces, some of the names. Most of  
them knew her, grew quieter when they saw her, nodded,  
started talking again.

"She's probably a shoe-in for the position," she heard  
someone whisper when they thought she'd gone.

"I hear they're looking for ten new people."

"To replace one person?"

"I heard she tried to kill them."

"I thought she pretended to try to kill them, but was  
on our side the whole time."

"I'll bet she said so later."

"Looks like they didn't believe her."

Kara bit her lip. Clark hadn't said much to her,  
after. He'd given her the basics, but she was sure he  
hadn't told her the full story. She didn't know if it  
was for League security, or just because it hurt him  
too much to think about right now.

"I heard that not all of the aliens left."

"What do you mean?"

"I heard Batman has one locked up in his Cave, and he  
does experiments on it. In case they come back"

"He would."

"I bet the Martian is helping him."

She tried to crane her head up, resisted the urge to  
fly. Flash was the only one out yet. That made sense.  
He and Clark had the most people skills, and Clark was  
seen as the leader. When Clark came out, things would  
start. Flash could press the flesh, and get the feel  
of the crowd, and nobody would think anything of it.

"When are they coming out?"

"What does it matter when? They'll come out, we'll get  
tested."

"What do you think the tests are going to be like?"

"Oh, show off your powers, probably. Maybe a written."

She wondered if they knew they were being tested right  
now.

"Batman gives me the creeps."

"I know. The Flash is pretty slimy, too."

"He seems nice."

"Maybe, but he can move so fast, he can grab you and  
let go and you wouldn't know it at all."

"You think maybe they have her locked up? In there?"

"I'd believe Batman would. Not Superman, though."

"What's he doing on the team anyway?"

"Batman?"

"Yeah. He doesn't have any powers at all."

A respectful distance grew around the speaker. "You  
ever go up against the Bat?"

"Well, no."

"Then shut up."

"You think they're looking for people with certain  
powers?"

"They probably don't want overlap."

"Oh." Kara felt someone staring in her direction,  
ignored it.

"I heard Nightwing already turned them down."

A snort. "Nightwing and Batman working together?  
That'd be the day."

"I thought they used to be partners."

"Used to."

"Oh."

"You think they'll want more women? They just have the  
one."

"Yeah, but that's Wonder Woman."

"So?"

"Would you want to be the only other woman around with  
her on the team?"

"Why not?"

"Well, she's very pretty."

"Not that. _Because._ She comes from an island of all  
women ... "

"You've heard about her, right?"

"I haven't heard anything."

"Let's just say she was probably really sad to see  
Hawkgirl go."

"What are you saying?"

"Not what he thinks he's saying. I have it on good  
authority that Green Lantern's going to miss Hawkgirl a  
lot more."

"Really? What have you heard?"

"You think she's taking a nine month leave?"

"That's just ... wrong. I mean, no offense and all,  
but it's just weird."

"You know what I heard?" Kara cut in, before anyone  
else could speak.

"What?" There was an eagerness now. After all, wasn't  
she Superman's junior partner? Didn't she work with  
Batgirl sometimes? She was practically an insider.

Kara smiled, and leaned in conspiratorially. Her  
audience gathered in around her.

"I heard," she said in a very quiet voice, "that  
Superman has super-hearing, and that he hates gossips."

She turned around and joined Flash at the head of the  
room, just as the door opened.

* * *

"Well that's something you don't see every day." Steve  
turned the volume up on the tv.

"Buncha superheroes in their pajamas. What's new about  
that?" Carl sipped his coffee.

"That they're all together." The reporter stood in  
front of the new Watchtower. Behind him, heroes of all  
sizes and shapes and colors stood lined up. Since the  
little "Live" tag wasn't on the screen, and since it  
would already be dark in Metropolis, Steve figured it  
was a rebroadcast from earlier in the day. "Anyone  
know if they said who they picked?"

Joe said, "I don't think they did."

"Maybe they'll take 'em all," said Carl.

"There's not gonna be room for them all," Steve said,  
looking at the Watchtower again. The news story  
changed to something about the President. He clicked  
the tv off.

"They probably do shifts. Like us." Carl grinned.  
"They've got a clock on the wall, everyone punches in.  
If you're late, you get docked."

"I don't think they get paid," said Joe.

"That would suck. Save the world, still not get paid?"

"They gotta have day jobs," Steve said. "Under those  
masks, they could be anybody." He looked around the  
break room.

"You're right," said Joe. "And I have to confess. I'm  
Superman." There were chuckles all around.

"I'm gonna call you that the rest of the night," said  
Carl. "Come on, break's over."

Steve grabbed his coat and hat, gave the MCPD on his  
badge a quick little polish. "You coming, Sarah?"

The new trainee kept staring into her coffee,  
oblivious. Steve sighed inwardly. When she was on  
duty she was fine, but given a moment to herself, Sarah  
was a million miles away every time.

"Hall! Wake up!"

"Sorry. Just woolgathering." She hadn't bothered  
taking off her coat, was ready as she got to her feet.  
She instead put on a smile that didn't make it all the  
way up to her eyes. "Time to do some good."

* * *

The End 


End file.
